Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday described terrorism as common enemies of both his nation and Pakistan, and called for joint fight against the menace.
"Terrorists are the common enemies of all of us. They, the terrorists, are defaming Islam, Afghanistan and Pakistan," the Afghan leader told an audience of more than 600 people from the two countries who were attending a tribal Peace Jirga or Grand Assembly here in the Afghan capital.
The enemies, he said, not only targeted Afghans but also attacked Pakistanis and that is why the schools in Pakistan's North and South Waziristan have been closed and the children cannot attend their classes.
Hundreds of Pakistani soldiers and militants, according to Pakistani officials, have been killed in the volatile tribal region where Pakistan has deployed more than 80,000 troops to check terrorists' movement.
"Who have kidnapped Chinese nationals in Islamabad? Who are behind the abduction of S.Korean citizens in Ghazni?" Karzai questioned and said such heinous crimes should be checked.
"Who is behind murdering Afghan Mullahs, engineers, doctors and who set on fire our schools?" Karzai said while referring to Taliban's attacks on religious leaders and educational institutions that have barred more than 250,000 boys and girls to go to schools in Afghanistan's southern provinces.
Seven hundred delegates from Pakistan and Afghanistan, 350 from each, were supposed to attend the four-day Jirga, but more than 60 delegates from Pakistan including the influential religious leader Mawlana Fazal Rahman refused to attend it.
Those who killed Afghans, Karzai said, are not Afghans, rather they are the enemies of Afghans and the enemies of Islam.
"I am confident if we, the two nations, decide jointly today to eliminate the terrorists tomorrow, they will be annihilated," the Afghan leader said.
In response, Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said that Islamabad wants to see a peaceful and stable Afghanistan.
The historic Jirga aimed at checking the activities of Taliban and al-Qaida operatives was agreed between President Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Musharraf last September.
Source: Xinhua
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